Potato Day and Seed Swapping

With all the cold weather and frozen ground i  have had to find other ways to occupy my time this last few weeks. Last week i went to a Potato Day organised by a local garden club. I was amazed by the choice on offer, over fourty varieites. i was like a kid in a sweet shop! Picked five varieites in the end, ten tubers of each, including a Blue variety and a Red one as well as a range of first earlies. i tend not to grow main crop as the effort involved and the chance of blight or slug damage makes it unproductive, especially when you consider the cost of a sack of Main Crops from the local farm shop. i stick to ‘new ‘ spuds or those in season early in the summer when the cost of buying them is higher.

Today i went to the seed swap, run by the local Wildlife group., lots of choice for swapping as well as book stalls, Freecycling and some great home made cakes!

more souds from Potato day

some of my spuds from potato day

Seedy Sunday

Still been keeping off the wet and cold clay at the plot so have had to content myself with sorting through the seed tins and browsing the catalogues for any new interesting varieties that catch my eye. I have also put to one side a pile of surplus seeds which i intend to take to the local seed swap. this is due to take place on 12th February, and i think there are a few around the country. if you have time and there is one near you, pop along and see what is going on. its a great way to pick up some unusual varieties, and to meet like minded people. there is often other things and stalls at the event. search the internet for seedy sunday and see what comes up!

seedy sunday aubergines start to grow

seedy sunday chillis

Ducks and Chickens

Things are a bit quiet on the plot at the moment, apart from the odd visit once a week to collect a few Parsnips, cabbage, kale or Spinach, it is too wet to do much. The Clay soil easily becomes compacted, you almost only have to look at it and it compacts down! so i have learnt the hard way, that until Spring comes around, i have to leave well alone.

Unfortunatley i am not allowed to keep any sort of livestock on the plot. That is a real shame. A few chickems scratching around would do wonders for weed and pest control and certainly wouldnt be a nuisance to anyone living nearby. I have to make do with keeping them at home in the backgarden. At present we have five chickens of various ages and variety as well as two ducks. Between them they have done a great job in eating the weeds and slugs, as well as the left over food and scraps that arent always suitable for composting. In terms of egg laying we have had more hens eggs than we know what to do with and the duck has laid an egg pretty much every day since mid February. i am amazed she is still laying, she must be due a break soon! if you have space i would recommend a couple of hens, they are great for the garden, just protect any crops you dont want them to eat, will manure the ground as they go, will eat stuff you cant compost(make sure this gets eaten quickly though or it could attract vermin if left out) and will produce an abundance of eggs which i think are way better than any you get in the shops or even from a local farm. But then perhaps i am a little biased towards my girls!

Mild Weather and Pumpkins

The good weather through October has meant i have been able to continue picking Courgettes and out door Tomatoes. The last picking was about a week ago. I have also been able to spend a good few weekends weeding and digging the soil over. Taking a tip from one of my allotment neighbours i have also invested a lot of time and effort in covering large areas of ground in cardboard and then covering with horse manure. the idea being that the cardboard stops weeds, i shant dig it over at all next year, just plant through it, and of course the manure will help improve the fertility. i shall plant beans and pumpkins in this ground, both of which like rich recently manured ground.

talking of pumpkins my son put his for sale signs out a week ago. within four hours they had all gone. about fourty pumpkins all sold. he was chuffed with his thirty pounds profit.

not really related but just a couple of photos taken on 6th November. the last of the outside tomatoes, still edible, and the flowering purple sprouting Broccoli, which i hope will still do something in the spring.

Time to Crack On

After six long weeks away from the plot i have at last been let back of the leash and can crack on with trying to recover the situation! the weeds have had a wonderful time and have been growing strongly, the Veg has been very productive though and we have still cropped way more than we can every eat or give away. This weekend i was able to start clearing away the old peas that have long since died off. i have collected lots of seeds from the runner beans, Haricot beans and Borlotti beans, as well as some Perpetual Spinach seed. i deliberatly left a couple of plants in situ from last season just to see what sort of seed crop i could get. it has been amazing. I wont need to buy any Spinach seed this year, sorry Vegnet! To be honest there are quite a few dishes of various seeds around the sunnier window sills at present. it is surprisingly easy to collect seed, if you dont do it already have a go. Start with simple things that seed annually like Peas or Beans. if you have the patience and space you can perhaps move on to the two year cyclically crops like carrots.

Spinach, Runner, Haricot and French Bean seed nearly ready for storing

Borlotti Beans -Fantastic colours

‘Eye’ am fed up!

I have just been to the plot for the first time after an enforced three week ‘ban’, because of an unexpected eye operation. My vision still hasnt fully returned, which is probably just as well because even with one good eye, i was devastated to see how neglected the plot had become in such a short space of time. admittedly I originally had plans to work on the weedier areas during my weeks holiday just before the August bank holiday, but that didnt happen and now its a jungle. Thankfully friends and family have been visiting to pick stuff, so it hasnt gone to waste, but i really want to get my hands dirty and do something. Unfortunately that still isnt allowed for another two weeks at least, so for now all i can do is look and  do the occasional bit of picking, and the sneakily pull up a weed or two when my wife isnt watching!

Bizarrely i had my first meal of Purple Sprouting this week, thats about 6 months early!  i guess i must have planted this earlier than normal, unless the strange weather has had an effect. Hopefully it will take a break and produce again when i really want it in March. Still it made a change from the now compulsory diet of Courgettes, tomatoes and runner beans. Amazing how months of anticipation eventually gives way to apathy and boredom!

roll on the Brussels sprouts.

I will try and get a few pictures up of the rapidly developing squash later this week, if i can manage to take a picture without showing the world my weedy bits!

Flowering coriander, bolting spinach, foreground, Pumpkins in distance.

weeds are taking over

Vegetable Stress

I know I  shouldn’t complain, but there is so much coming off the plots at the moment it is ‘stressing’ me out knowing how to deal with it. I  hate wasting anything, so composting surplus seems criminal. I have given what I can to friends, families and neighbours and even started to put the rest outside the front of the house – Free to a Good Home!

Over the past weekend I picked 15 good sized courgettes, 2 Marrows, a carrier bag full of Runner Beans, Half a bag of French beans, a pound of Raspberries, and a family sized portion of Mange Tout. I havent touched the Chard, Kale, Cabbbages, beetroot, carrots etc as these arent in desperate need of picking, yet!

I lifted my onions about a week ago, based on the promise of a good week of weather. It was a bit earlier than normal but because of the forecast and as I will be away later this month, (why do I go away at the busiest time in the Allotment year?) I thought it would be good to deal with them before I went on my holidays. They were doing ok, Thursday was damp, but I  managed to get there and cover them with a couple of sheets of corragated tin, so that kept them dry. Unfortunatly having uncovered them again I was completely caught out by the torrential downpour yesterday.  I am not sure what effect a good soaking when they were almost’dry’ will do for long term storage?  I think I will gather them in tonight and spread them around the greenhouse and shed to dry them back out.  Hopefully all will be well.

My Onions, now sheltering under the umbrella on the garden table.

Anyway I  must get back to the recipe book, 1001 ways with Courgettes and Marrows!

Oh and as a late addition here are some Tomatoes to add to my stress levels, all picked today along with three cucumbers.

Today's crop of Heritage Tomatoes

Dads coming for dinner

Got my dad coming for dinner this weekend, so will be off to the plot to pick as much as possible to feed him. Nothing unusual in that i know but being a bit old in years and not getting out much his topics of conversation is a bit limited.

A standing joke with the  kids now is guessing how long it will be before he asks the  question………….’so whats on the plate from the garden today then?’. he always asks and they then try desperately not to choke on there lunch!  Maybe you have to be there, thats a saying not an invite

Beans Means Summer

beans

To steal very loosely from the Tv advert, Beans dont mean Heinz, they really do mean summer is here. And of course these green ones are so much nicer than the ones in the tomato sauce!

i do seem to have got a bit carried away this year, broad beans, two varieties, dwarf French, climbing French, runners, haricot and borlottis. Anyone visiting my plot would thing i lived on nothing else, and too be honest it really will be a bean fest! The broad beans have suffered big time with black fly, i was slow to pinch out the tops and so despite the best efforts of the ladybirds, i have had to rip out quite a few plants. The guy next to me though hasnt had one plant affected, obviusly a different variety less popular with our little black fiends. All the other types are coming on well and a first picking of Scotts dwarf french bean today will be enjoyed for tea!

Lots has been written about the decline in Bee numbers, so i do what i can to encourage as many as i can onto the plot, one of the best plants for that is borage. they absoluelty love it and swarm all over it. Hopefully they detour to my beans as well! The small purple flowers look lovely too and the plants flower from June right through to the autumn. But beware, when thet seed, boy do the y seed. i am constantly hoeing out the ones i dont want, which is a lot of them! i have left them to grow in amongst my spuds, and dig them out as i move along the row, and i have also left a patch in an area where i am not growing anything else this year. i think they look great. i am not one for spotless regimented rows of veg and often leave poppies and other wild flowers, in amongst the crops. ok the yield is reduced a bit but to see the colours and to encourage insects it has to be worth it.

i have taken a couple of photos, unfortunately it isn’t close enough to see the mass of bees but i think you get the idea.

borage left to grow in the spuds

borage for the bees

Slugs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Having just visited the allotment after the recent rain I find that the slugs and snails have re emerged. I was really pleased with the progress the cabbages were making, i had got them established during all the dry weather and i was hoping for a good return. But it seems that may not be the case.

Slug damage

i like to try and be as wildlife friendly as possible so really hate using chemicals of any sort, but i am at a loss as to how to stop the damage these slimy creatures are causing. i  dont appear to have  an abundance of natural predators, there is no water close by so frogs arent around, i have seen no evidence of hedgehogs, and if a recent report is to be believed, numbers are declining rapidly, so i am unlikely to find them around either. that leaves alternative soluitons.

Snail damage

the tv gardeners are full of useful? tips, such as crushed egg shells – these work better if baked in the oven first, so they are crunchy, but the smell when they are cooking is not popular in the house! Also depsite having chickens i cant get enough shell to really cover the area i need.

Gravel is supposed to work, but again i need a JCB load and that aint cheap, i could try and obtain some from the road side, but  i guess the council may object!

Coffee granules were  ok, but i have had to drink so much of the stuff i have been completely hyperactive, and  i cant dig in a straight line!

So that leaves me with pellets. i have bought some ‘organic’ pellets, but i really dont know what that means, surely these will still harm the birds and hedgehogs etc, and i am sure this is one of the reasons why numbers of these prickly creatures are falling. But what else can you do? i invest so much time and effort in trying to grow this stuff, surely i should do all i can to protect it? But are a few cabbages worth the enviromental damage i am contributing too?

can anyone offer other less harmful solutions that have worked ?

Finally, i have mentioned slugs and snails, so here is the puppy dog tail – Gunner, the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, super dog, rubbish gardener, unless you need a hole dug in an inappropriate place!